OLLAH, s. Tam. ōlai, Mal. ōla. A palm-leaf; but especially the leaf of the [Palmyra] (Borassus flabelliformis) as prepared for writing on, often, but incorrectly, termed [cadjan] (q.v.). In older books the term ola generally means a native letter; often, as in some cases below, a written order. A very good account of the royal scribes at Calicut, and their mode of writing, is given by Barbosa as follows:—
1516.—"The King of Calecut keeps many clerks constantly in his palace; they are all in one room, separate and far from the king, sitting on benches, and there they write all the affairs of the king's revenue, and his alms, and the pay which is given to all, and the complaints which are presented to the king, and, at the same time, the accounts of the collectors of taxes. All this is on broad stiff leaves of the palm-tree, without ink, with pens of iron; they write their letters in lines drawn like ours, and write in the same direction as we do. Each of these clerks has great bundles of these written leaves, and wherever they go they carry them under their arms, and the iron pen in their hands ... and amongst these are 7 or 8 who are great confidants of the king, and men held in great honour, who always stand before him with their pens in their hand and a bundle of paper under their arm; and each of them has always several of these leaves in blank but signed at the top by the king, and when he commands them to despatch any business they write it on these leaves."—Pp. 110-111, Hak. Soc., but translation modified.
1553.—"All the Gentiles of India ... when they wish to commit anything to written record, do it on certain palm-leaves which they call olla, of the breadth of two fingers."—Barros, I. ix. 3.
" "All the rest of the town was of wood, thatched with a kind of palm-leaf, which they call ola."—Ibid. I. iv. vii.
1561.—"All this was written by the king's writer, whose business it is to prepare his olas, which are palm-leaves, which they use for writing-paper, scratching it with an iron point."—Correa, i. 212-213. Correa uses the word in three applications: (a) for a palm-leaf as just quoted; (b) for a palm-leaf letter; and (c) for (Coco) palm-leaf thatch.
1563.—"... in the Maldiva Islands they make a kind of vessel which with its nails, its sails, and its cordage is all made of palm; with the fronds (which we call olla in Malavar) they cover houses and vessels."—Garcia, f. 67.
1586.—"I answered that I was from Venice, that my name was Gasparo Balbi ... and that I brought the emeralds from Venice expressly to present to his majesty, whose fame for goodness, courtesy, and greatness flew through all the world ... and all this was written down on an olla, and read by the aforesaid 'Master of the Word' to his Majesty."—G. Balbi, f. 104.
" "But to show that he did this as a matter of justice, he sent a further order that nothing should be done till they received an olla, or letter of his sign manual written in letters of gold; and so he (the King of Pegù) ordered all the families of those nobles to be kept prisoners, even to the women big with child, and the infants in bands, and so he caused the whole of them to be led upon the said scaffolding; and then the king sent the olla, ordering them to be burnt; and the Decagini executed the order, and burned the whole of them."—Ibid. f. 112-113.
[1598.—"Sayles which they make of the leaves, which leaves are called Olas."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 45.
[1611.—"Two Ollahs, one to Gimpa Raya...."—Danvers, Letters, i. 154.]